50 Bridges
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We are now on the Tring Summit section. This is a very different beast to what has come before. Up to now, we have wiggled and twisted to follow the contour line, the engineers only using locks when forced to. Now, on the top of the Chilterns, the engineers took a different approach, presumably because of the challenges of water supply. This section is fairly straight and often deeply cut into the landscape. This is a different flavour of canal building, not trying to follow the shape of the land to minimise changes in elevation, rather just straightlining to minimise the length. It's much more like the railway construction that was to shortly follow (and be built only 500m away). I don't know the details for the canal cutting, but the nearby railway cutting is of a similar size; it took 500 navvies three years to dig by hand, excavating 1.4m cubic yards of chalk
As a walker this area is not my favourite; dark, damp and a tedious straight line trudge. I was quite keen to get through it. But, as it turned out, I was lucky on the day I went, and it was not too bad at all. The sun was out, and at this time in the Winter it shines almost straight along the cutting. Also the trees had no leaves on them, further helping the light levels. But, even despite this, the feel of this section is totally different, it's a long deep hole in the ground.
There are not many bridges along the Tring Summit, and not hugely interesting photographically. I did the best I could!
Bridge 134, also known as High Bridge (err, 'cos it's high). That's a lot of bricks down there. The road at the top is a tiny little farm lane.
Bridge 135 is a modern concrete road bridge very close to Tring station. The station is famously nowhere especially close to Tring town centre, but almost two miles away. The story often told is that the lord of the manor wouldn't have that new fangled railway on his land, but the true story is that the railway engineers were never planning to go into Tring. The local tradespeople petitioned the railway company to come to their town, and a compromise was reached. Once more, the photographic interest in modern, low budget, concrete bridges eluded me, so I photographed the light underneath instead. Believe me, you're not missing much.
Bridge 136 is another quiet country road going over a brick arch.
A little further on, we get to a side arm leading to Cow Roast Marina. When I first heard the wonderful name of this area, I had visions of an enormous barbeque... sadly I was disappointed. The name may be a mangling of Cow Rest on a drover's route - or not. The bridge over the side arm did not seem to have a number, until I browsed around on the marina side of it, where it had a plaque that said 136 - well that can't be right, because we have just seen bridge 136, so that's a bit odd.
And finally for today, bridge 137.
Whilst here I had a conversation with a fisherman about pike fishing. It soon became blindingly obvious that:
a) He knew a lot (and I mean, a lot) about the subject
b) He was keen to share all this information
c) He was much more interested in this than I was
After a polite length of time I made my excuses and left.
The next stretch will take us to the end of this journey past/under an arbitrary 50 Bridges.
As a walker this area is not my favourite; dark, damp and a tedious straight line trudge. I was quite keen to get through it. But, as it turned out, I was lucky on the day I went, and it was not too bad at all. The sun was out, and at this time in the Winter it shines almost straight along the cutting. Also the trees had no leaves on them, further helping the light levels. But, even despite this, the feel of this section is totally different, it's a long deep hole in the ground.
There are not many bridges along the Tring Summit, and not hugely interesting photographically. I did the best I could!
Bridge 134, also known as High Bridge (err, 'cos it's high). That's a lot of bricks down there. The road at the top is a tiny little farm lane.
Bridge 135 is a modern concrete road bridge very close to Tring station. The station is famously nowhere especially close to Tring town centre, but almost two miles away. The story often told is that the lord of the manor wouldn't have that new fangled railway on his land, but the true story is that the railway engineers were never planning to go into Tring. The local tradespeople petitioned the railway company to come to their town, and a compromise was reached. Once more, the photographic interest in modern, low budget, concrete bridges eluded me, so I photographed the light underneath instead. Believe me, you're not missing much.
Bridge 136 is another quiet country road going over a brick arch.
A little further on, we get to a side arm leading to Cow Roast Marina. When I first heard the wonderful name of this area, I had visions of an enormous barbeque... sadly I was disappointed. The name may be a mangling of Cow Rest on a drover's route - or not. The bridge over the side arm did not seem to have a number, until I browsed around on the marina side of it, where it had a plaque that said 136 - well that can't be right, because we have just seen bridge 136, so that's a bit odd.
And finally for today, bridge 137.
Whilst here I had a conversation with a fisherman about pike fishing. It soon became blindingly obvious that:
a) He knew a lot (and I mean, a lot) about the subject
b) He was keen to share all this information
c) He was much more interested in this than I was
After a polite length of time I made my excuses and left.
The next stretch will take us to the end of this journey past/under an arbitrary 50 Bridges.
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Good to see this progressing. 
That's unusual. Us pike fishermen usually tell nobody nowt!
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This stretch of the walk takes us from the delightfully named Cow Roast (which may not live up to the promise of its name) to Berkhamsted. I first visited Berkhamsted as a schoolboy in short trousers when we went on a school trip to the castle - quite why we went there, when school was in Ealing, West London, I have no idea. Returning to the castle as an adult I was immediately transported back to that earlier visit. Anyway, we are here to look at canal bridges, not castles.
There is a bit of a theme to today's pictures, as the light shining under the bridges was especially attractive - apologies if I overdid it.
Bridge 138 - another brick arch, but with a sunlit vista beyond of which we get the merest hint.
Bridge 139 - with great light underneath, camera club judges would moan about not being able to make out the detail in the shadows, but I don't care!
Bridge 140 - a modern concrete jobbie with few redeeming features. As before, I fall back onto reflections of the ripples.
Bridge 140A - a lovely swooping white pedestrian bridge to carry the beautiful people of Berkhamsted over the Navigation.
Bridge 140B - a wooden pedestrian bridge to carry those same beautiful people back again.
Bridge 140C - this recently restored steel bridge is beautifully painted, and is the first one to make me regret not having colour film. But then I sneak in a second picture of the graphic light underneath that rightly justifies B&W.
And so my mission is complete - Bridge 90 to Bridge 140 documented. Nominally 50 bridges, but with some gaps, and some extras added over the years. Milton Keynes to Berkhamsted. That's it, it's over....
.... except ....
I've decided that I'm enjoying so much, that I'm going to carry on a bit further.
I spent my working life mostly in and around Hemel Hempstead, so I'm going to go on to there - probably Apsley to be precise.
There is a bit of a theme to today's pictures, as the light shining under the bridges was especially attractive - apologies if I overdid it.
Bridge 138 - another brick arch, but with a sunlit vista beyond of which we get the merest hint.
Bridge 139 - with great light underneath, camera club judges would moan about not being able to make out the detail in the shadows, but I don't care!
Bridge 140 - a modern concrete jobbie with few redeeming features. As before, I fall back onto reflections of the ripples.
Bridge 140A - a lovely swooping white pedestrian bridge to carry the beautiful people of Berkhamsted over the Navigation.
Bridge 140B - a wooden pedestrian bridge to carry those same beautiful people back again.
Bridge 140C - this recently restored steel bridge is beautifully painted, and is the first one to make me regret not having colour film. But then I sneak in a second picture of the graphic light underneath that rightly justifies B&W.
And so my mission is complete - Bridge 90 to Bridge 140 documented. Nominally 50 bridges, but with some gaps, and some extras added over the years. Milton Keynes to Berkhamsted. That's it, it's over....
.... except ....
I've decided that I'm enjoying so much, that I'm going to carry on a bit further.
I spent my working life mostly in and around Hemel Hempstead, so I'm going to go on to there - probably Apsley to be precise.
Thanks Dave!
Thanks Jak!Great set and well told, thanks